1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a recording apparatus, and more particularly to a recording apparatus configured such that external signals are inputted to a recording head using a flexible wiring member.
2. Discussion of Related Art
As a recording apparatus including a recording head mounted on a carriage and configured to perform recording by ejection of ink from the recording head onto a recording medium while reciprocating the carriage in a main scanning direction, i.e., in a direction perpendicular to a direction of feeding the recording medium, there has been conventionally known a recording apparatus configured such that signals from a signal source are inputted to the recording head via a flexible wiring member for selectively ejecting the ink.
In an ink-jet printer that includes an ink-jet head as the recording head as disclosed in a Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2005-271274, in particular FIG. 2, corresponding to US Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0206691 A1), for instance, a head-side circuit board mounted on the carriage and the recording head are connected to each other via a flexible wiring member, and a drive circuit is mounted on the flexible wiring member, whereby signals from the head-side circuit board are inputted to the recording head via the drive circuit. The recording head includes a cavity portion in which nozzles and ink channels are formed, a piezoelectric actuator for giving an ejection pressure to the ink in the cavity portion, and a flexible wiring member electrically connected to the piezoelectric actuator. The cavity portion, the piezoelectric actuator, and the flexible wiring member are stacked on each other to provide the recording head.
In recent years, it has been required that the recording apparatus have an increased number of nozzles to be adaptable to a recording medium of a relatively large size and to satisfy a demand for a higher speed of recording. To this end, where the recording apparatus has the recording head as disclosed in the Patent Document 1, it is proposed to increase the size of one recording head, namely, to upsize the cavity portion, the piezoelectric actuator, and the flexible wiring member of the recording head. It is further proposed to juxtapose a plurality of recording heads each having a conventional size, as disclosed in a Patent Document 2 (JP-A-2005-193579, in particular, FIG. 3, corresponding to US Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0151796 A1).